- The
Argentine paradox
Clarin newspaper May, 2000
It
is the 40th anniversary of the capture of Adolf
Eichmann. Many who had the fortune of eluding death and
are still alive provide us with their testimony that allows
us to discern the valid, tragic events of our history.
But one day the last of the survivors, our witnesses,
will pass away. It will then become the obligation of
the successors to keep the memory alive for future generations.
This is especially the case now that supposed academic
minds question the exact nature of the Shoah (Holocaust)
affirming without any qualm that Auschwitzs gas
chambers were an ingenious theatrical display that was
put on by the liberating Allied armies.
This
task has a specific meaning in Argentina whose history
on this matter is so much so intense as it is contradictory.
Hundreds of Nazi war criminals found safe refuge in this
country after the war. However, thousands of persecuted
people and survivors of pogroms finally found peace and
prosperity here. Two bombs destroyed the Israeli Embassy
and the Jewish Mutual Aid Society resulting in the death
of hundreds in the worst terrorist acts in the history
of Argentina. On the suggestion of our Foundation, Emilie
Schindler was honored by a government begun by Juan Perons
political party, in the same staterooms where profitable
alliances were made with the Third Reich.
The
Catholic Church, which today is going through a period
of self-critique regarding its past at the hands of the
Pope, encouraged the building of a Holocaust Remembrance
Mural at the Cathedral of Buenos Aires, an unprecedented
undertaking on a global scale.
We
should also look at Eichmanns story in order to
see the flip side of the coin when we unearth the heroic
work of the Swedish diplomat, Raoul Wallenberg who did
not take advantage of his public position to plunder or
gain benefits but rather to serve and protect the lives
of those who needed the most assistance. Wallenberg put
himself in much danger but was ultimately defeated by
a different form of totalitarianism than that he was fighting
against.
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